This country has a national happiness index. But what is it really like to live there?

Lilit Marcus

By Lilit Marcus, CNN

 8 minute read 

Published 10:14 PM EDT, Thu July 4, 2024 CNN

Life in Bhutan: This Himalayan country is now opening up to the world. Few images show that contrast better than these Buddhist monks passing some young men using smartphones. Click through the gallery to learn more about this nation.Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

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Bhutan: The pursuit of happiness

Bhutan: The pursuit of happiness | 101 East
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1GyJt-dxZM

Al Jazeera English – 9-10-2020

In the small, secluded country of Bhutan, happiness is not just a traditional way of life – it is a national statistic.

Bhutan’s government introduced “Gross National Happiness” as a measure of the nation’s progress.

Opening the country up to international tourism has allowed for some development, but the weight of tradition still weighs heavily on the kingdom’s young generation. Not everyone gets to enjoy the perks of a modern lifestyle.

101 East explores the cost of happiness in this hermit kingdom.

Build a spiritually healthy capital, Party leader exhorts Hanoi

vnexpress.net 

By Hoang Thuy   October 12, 2020 | 05:29 pm GMT+7

Build a spiritually healthy capital, Party leader exhorts Hanoi

Vietnam’s Party Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong speaks at the 17th Party Congress of Hanoi, October 12, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh.

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong on Monday called for Hanoi to become a “peaceful, beautiful capital that is healthy physically and spiritually.”

Addressing the opening session of the 17th Hanoi Party Congress for the 2020-2025 tenure, Trong acclaimed the results achieved by the city’s Party Committee for the 2016-2020 term, describing them as “great and important.”

Hanoi currently contributes over 16 percent of the nation’s economic growth, 18.5 percent of national budget collection, 20 percent of domestic revenue and 8.6 percent of the country’s total import and export turnover.

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Bhutan: Statistics and the pursuit of happiness

medium.com

Within the South Asia region, where about a third of the world’s poor live, Bhutan has had astonishing success in reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity. Following the development philosophy of Gross National Happiness, Bhutan has increased its GDP per capita to US$3,398 in 2018, exceeding South Asia’s average of US$1,905 in the same year.¹

GDP per capita (current US$)

Data: World Bank

Bhutan’s economic growth has been driven by its public sector through hydropower development, with hydropower contributing as much as 30% of the GDP.² In comparison, Bhutan’s private sector is weak given its mountainous terrain, small domestic market, sparse population, high transportation costs, skill shortages, and other factors.³

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Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index

Download “A Short Guide to Gross National Happiness Index” >>

2015 GNH Survey Report

2015 GNH SURVEY REPORT

2015 GNH Survey Report

Since the foundation of Bhutan, spirituality and compassion have been integrated with governance. Furthermore, this integration has occurred at both the personal and the institutional level. This report opens by tracing the history of this imaginative integration, which was crystallized by His Majesty the Fourth King into the idea of GNH. As Bhutan has developed and encounters with other societies expanded, the spirituality of compassion that earlier was embedded in civil servants’ via personal practice has been made more explicit, more articulate and uses modern technologies. One expression of this is the development of the GNH Index, which opens a wider angle onto people’s lives. Survey data are used to provides information on all of these relevant areas. And the GNH Survey and Index are used to clarify areas in which the conditions for happiness exist and those where public action is required to establish the conditions of happiness. As the GNH research of the Centre for Bhutan Studies is designed to inform action, the first chapter also describes the associated policy and programme screening tools as well as other actions by which GNH has been advanced.

The remainder of this report presents the findings of the 2015 Gross National Happiness (GNH) Survey, which collected information from across Bhutan on many aspects of Bhutanese people’s lives that relate to wellbeing measurement and analysis. The Survey was used to construct the 2015 GNH Index, and to compare levels and the composition of GNH across groups, and across the period 2010-2015.

The GNH Survey and the GNH Index created from it are designed to guide actions to advance GNH across Bhutan This report, called A Compass Towards a Just and Harmonious Society, presents the detailed findings from the survey for use by both experts and the general public. It also gives strong guidance for action in public policy, by the private sector, and among civil society organisations.

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